Nurture Campaigns: Definition, Types and Best Practices

If you’ve worked with email marketing before, you likely know what a drip campaign is.

A nurture campaign is quite similar; however, it is not exactly the same. Both of these techniques are crucial for effective marketing. And knowing how and when to use lead-nurturing emails can help you establish a connection with potential leads and advance them through the sales process until they are ready to become customers.

This article defines a nurture campaign, outlines several types of them, and walks you through the procedures involved in developing a nurture campaign. We'll also discuss some of the best practices that encourage your leads to buy.

What Is a Nurture Campaign?

The second description of a nurturing campaign is a message delivered to potential consumers to encourage conversion.  It should concentrate on your target audience since it can assist businesses in converting leads into paying clients, growing their income, knowing their target market better, and establishing trust.

A potential consumer can interact with your company in a variety of ways. Customers could put anything in their shopping cart, join your mailing list, benefit from an offer, or schedule a meeting with a sales representative. It's a less aggressive and more personal strategy because this individual already interacts with your brand. The campaign aims to stay relevant to your audience by providing them with useful information. This will potentially lead them to make a purchase.

For example, a user goes to a sports nutrition website. An email with a webinar targeted to a special diet is sent out ten days after the lead triggers an alert. After seeing the webinar, the lead receives another email that directs them to a website that features a paid, personalized meal plan.

Types of Nurture Campaigns

Let's discuss some of the best lead nurturing campaigns.

Introduction campaign

Consider developing an introductory campaign that describes your brand, promotes your products, or describes the services you provide when you initially attract potential consumers. The first email in the subscriber's welcome email should provide them with useful information. This will make a receiver interact with your business.

Discount campaign

It is used for leads that don't convert since your product is more expensive than their budget allows. It works by sending a timely email with a discount or free delivery voucher. It is essential to make sure only those who actually need a discount receive one. 

Although some people could put off purchasing for unexplained reasons, those are not budget constraints. Your discount emails have to be scheduled perfectly to ensure that only the real target audience (those who actually require a discount) receives them.

Authority perception campaign

The goal of this email campaign is to secure the brand's authority. As a result, it tries to convince leads to go over the line and start making purchases from you. We want to provide the same in the phases of the final sales during the authority campaign. Sharing any of the material examples below does this:

• Press releases;
• Industry reports;
• High rankings.

The type of subscribers who receive this campaign is considering purchasing from you but have not yet made a choice. Not all subscribers are price-sensitive; some just want assurance that they've made the best possible decision.

Re-engagement campaign

A re-engagement strategy aims to convert inactive, "willing-to-buy-again" clients into active ones.

The emails used in this campaign have to be unique. We need a brand-new infographic, a blog post serving as a proof-of-concept, a case study, and other forms of “interesting” material. It should be distinctive enough to compel the client to act.

Re-engagement efforts demand particular care from you and should have very captivating content. These emails can also be automated, but you should pay close attention to their content.

How to Start a Proper Nurture Campaign

Here are six steps to help you develop a lead nurturing strategy:

1. Set your goals

Choose your campaign's main goal before you start. Potential objectives include focusing on a particular audience subset, transitioning clients from the awareness stage to the information stage, or boosting the conversion rates of prospective clients who sign up for a free trial.

Establish objectives for every piece of material included in the nurture campaign. Determine the goal of each piece of content, such as attracting more leads to download a certain e-book, viewing a video, or sharing your post on social media, before deciding on the precise wording or style of the material. Adapt each piece of content to the lead's target audience segment, degree of involvement, and point in the buyer's journey.

2. Begin with lead scoring

Lead scoring is where a nurturing campaign always starts. Lead scoring is a strategy used to determine a visitor's position within the business's buying process and their level of brand engagement. Marketers can then use these qualified leads and data to select the appropriate channel of contact to open up between their business and visitors and implement their nurturing campaign accordingly.

You should first determine whether the lead belongs to your target market. Of course, this has to do with demographics. You should also determine whether your lead can make a purchase and whether your product or service would truly benefit them.

According to the Content Marketing Institute, knowing those needs will enable you to decide whether a direct offer is appropriate at this moment or whether you need to utilize more informational material instead.

3. Create relevant content

Ask your content marketing team to create in-depth and educational material. Connect the information to your field or the services your company provides without directly promoting them. Remember that the article should offer readers useful information that will help them trust your company.

4. Set time goals

Choose how long your nurturing campaign will last. Marketing teams believe that aligning their lead nurturing initiatives with the beginning of the sales cycle would be most beneficial to their firm as a whole. Set up email automation depending on your potential customer's behaviors, qualities, activities, or engagement if your nurturing campaign includes email marketing in any way, whether it's part of it or not.

5. Monitor your progress

Keep tabs on the progress of your email marketing campaign. With each piece of content you read, keep an eye on the following statistics and information:

• Downloads;
• Inbound links;
• Content shares;
• Read rates;
• Comments;
• Followers or subscribers.

Top 6 Nurture Campaign Best Practices

Emails may be a potent tool for developing relationships with potential leads. To make them work best for you, adhere to the following recommendations.

Keep them short

Information overload occurs frequently. Although research indicates that emails should be between 50 and 125 words, you can extend your content to engage your prospects fully. But wherever you can, keep it brief.

Focus on one relevant topic per email

Since your leads are flooded with emails throughout the day, imagine yourself in their position when writing them. Keep the email's content related to the subject that the lead first clicked on.

Ensure the emails progress naturally

You can develop campaigns that draw clients through the sales funnel by carefully organizing the delivery of your emails. The first email following the initial conversion can be instructional, and future emails should keep educating the lead while giving them a chance to convert again. This is a wonderful chance to offer a free trial or a demo.

Personalize the emails

For different kinds of leads, you should send several personalized emails for each lead. This covers who they are as customers and any previous contacts they may have had with your company. Consider the following details regarding your leads: 

• Did they consent to get updates?
• Have they received a welcome email sent automatically?
• Did they previously purchase from you?

Stay consistent with your brand

Maintaining your brand's presence with leads helps create a connection that encourages them to convert into customers. With time, familiarity will develop important trust and brand loyalty.

Provide valuable content with expert insights

Ensure you have something worthwhile to educate your leads as a top priority. Consider the emails you send to nurture leads as mini-blog entries. Keep in mind that you are a professional in your field. Continue to share fresh information with your leads, and they'll be more than willing to subscribe to your emails and interact with your company.

Test your emails

Tracking important data can help you determine how well your emails do as you test them. A successful campaign will typically have a less than 5% unsubscribe rate. It's necessary to reassess your campaign if your unsubscribe rate rises to more than 5%. Consider experimenting with new material, a better subject line, or changing the time you send out emails.

Apply This Effective Strategy to Convert Leads into Clients

Campaigns aimed at converting leads into paying clients can be incredibly successful. It is a strategy that enables your brand to effectively use its own distinctive voice by creatively extending this discussion rather than frantically attempting to close a deal. Since lead nurturing initiatives take more time, there is more opportunity for development and optimization, which helps the campaign succeed even more if the marketers are careful.